Take, for
example, the Statesman’s Op Ed Opinion last Sunday, May 24th.

The
lead-in, to soften up the reader, says, “Ada County commissioners are in
penny-pinching mode, as well they should be.” So far, so good.

Then, the
yes-yes-yes of the schizophrenic Op Ed says, “Commissioners are talking
about cutting their contributions to several regional planning groups, and
that makes sense.” OK, sounds good.

Then, the
Statesman coughs up the no-no-no portion of their Schizophrenic Op Ed and
says, “Commissioners also cut $52,500 in contributions to a Valley economic
development group, and that seems short-sighted.”

Really?
Why doesn’t this Valley economic development group fall into the Idaho
Statesman’s category of it’s OK to cut the spending?

Because,
as we discover in the Statesman’s answer in the very next sentence, “The
last thing the region needs is a domino effect of cuts [i.e., not spending
tax money on special interest groups] – which could stymie job creation,
just when the Valley needs it the most.”

Ding
dong. The Idaho Statesman says a government body, Ada County Commissioners,
should cut spending but NOT for this particular group because the Statesman
assumes the false Keynesian economics premise that spending paper money
printed out of thin air somehow produces a
multiplier effect that can stimulate
job creation.

Apparently, the Statesman editors have bought into the federal crap that
President Barack Obama and his socialist Economic Advisors are attempting to
foist down our throats on the premise that for every $1 of federal spending,
the nation will – through some VooDoo magic -- reap $1.57 in economic
wealth. By spending, or rather inflating
– which is a clever form of counterfeiting and taxation -- the U.S. deficit
to $11 Trillion, the Obama Administration expects to stimulate our GDP by
1.57 times. The real joke is that we already have $680 Trillion in toxic
derivatives floating around the global economy today – forty times current
GDP of $15 Trillion – and it didn’t stimulate squat. In fact, we now have
high inflation and a whoop-tee-doo Depression. Building their economic
conclusions on their mathematical fairytales, Obama’s socialist planners
then divide their future mirage of new “stimulated” wealth by union wage
rates and calculate, erroneously, that they can somehow produce 4 million
new jobs for America.

Unfortunately, the above Keynesian socialist economics is just a glob of
economic balderdash.

Think
about it for a moment. Nobody can simply print up non-backed or
non-collateralized paper money and stimulate an economy into riches. In
fact, the exact opposite must happen. That is, inflation of the money
supply does not stimulate production; it hinders all economic activity as
everybody tries to adjust to higher prices, dislocation of capital, and
future unknown consequences brought about by governmental intervention. If
a government really could print itself into riches, the former Soviet Union,
China, Cuba and all socialist nations in Latin America would have become
filthy rich by now.

Nor can
the government, on net, enrich the economy or create more jobs by taking
from Peter – taxation – and giving to Paul. Governments can certainly rob
Peter and redistribute the booty to their friends but, on net, governments
cannot enrich economies through taxation or printing up paper money out of
thin air.

The
editors at the Idaho Statesman continue in their schizophrenic folly by
correctly pointing out all the parameters characterizing a Depression: a
real estate slump, a dead construction market, a nose-diving retail market,
and, closer to home, job layoffs with 2,500 pink slips from Micron in Idaho,
and then babble about it as if they had no idea whatsoever how our current
Depression came about. Perhaps they really don’t know. News flash to the
Statesman: it certainly wasn’t due to a lack of enough deficit spending and
hyper-inflation of the U.S. Dollar. And it wasn’t due to a virus from
Mars. But since the editors have no clue, they buy off on Obama’s current
fascist economic business model – i.e., the state issues government rules to
all corporations about how they will conduct business. Think Mussolini’s
Italian fascism of the 1930’s and 40’s.

Continuing
with their Economic Village Idiot solution to create wealth and jobs, the
Statesman concludes, “It’s time to market the Valley.”

Right.
Time to market the valley. But by whom? And with who’s tax money?

Why, with
YOUR tax money, of course. Meaning, it’s time for Ada County to continue
taxing the citizens of Ada County and the County Commissioners should dole
out tax money to special interest groups such as the Statesman’s choice, the
Boise Valley Economic Partnership (BVEP), so they can intervene in the
market to stimulate and guide the creation of businesses and jobs in Idaho’s
Treasure Valley.

The Idaho
Statesman continues arguing that “economic development – when well-executed
and well-funded – helps create jobs that expand the county’s tax base.” The
implication is that the only correct method to enrich an economy is for the
County Commissioners (the government) to partner with a special interest
group such as the BVEP to make this happen by giving the BVEP tax money.

But the
real question is: what about the free market? What about individual rights
and the freedom to direct your capital where you best think it should be
spent? The assumption that economic development cannot be “well-executed
and well-funded” by voluntary exchanges of individuals in a free market
instead of by the government is just a bunch of hooey. In fact, it’s wrong
both morally and economics-wise.

The most
important refutation against governmental intervention into the economy is
that the act of intervention destroys the free market pricing mechanism, the
very thing that is required for economic calculation and business
forecasting. And that, dear Readers, is why our economy is currently
sitting around in a stagflated Depression: too much governmental
intervention. The federal government, through the Federal Reserve, has
inflated the crap out of the U.S. Dollar, intervened in all areas of the
economy, especially banking and housing, and now insurance and cars, and
thus instigated the destruction of all real market prices. All commerce is
rapidly coming to a standstill, and businessmen do not have a meaningful
monetary tool, the real value of the U.S. Dollar, with which to calculate
which way to go, which way to invest, whether a profit can be made, or how
to move what’s left of real capital without getting stuck with fake Pulp
Fiction Dollars being prodigiously pumped out by the Obama administration.

Governmental intervention into the market, after destroying every nation’s
currency, has brought the global economy to a standstill.

The
solution to job creation is not for the government to tax its citizens and
dole out money to special interest groups. In a free market, the people
automatically create businesses and jobs without government intervention.
The only proper function of a limited republic is to provide and enforce
objective laws to protect individual rights to freely give or exchange, not
to redistribute legitimately earned wealth. The referee, the government,
should not participate in the business of the market for the same reason
that football refs don’t get to play quarterback for either team in the 3rd
quarter of the Super Bowl.

The only
true function of the County Commissioners is to uphold the Idaho and U.S.
Constitutions. If the citizens of Idaho and the rest of the United States
were allowed to exercise their natural born rights, including the right to
use gold or silver as a medium of economic exchange, today’s financial
meltdown would rapidly resolve itself. Neither the Ada County Commissioners
nor the state or federal governments are capable of creating wealth by
spending money. They can only redistribute somebody else’s wealth and
destroy free markets and thus individual freedom. Wealth is produced by
free-thinking and free-acting individuals, taking risks, and transforming
ideas into time and labor saving devices or services. The government is not
a net producer of wealth, either directly or by re-routing other people’s
money.

We got
into our current economic problems when the federal government dumped the
gold standard, implemented fractional reserve banking, and then
hyper-inflated the U.S. and global economies into today’s $680 Trillion of
worthless toxic derivatives – 40 times our current GDP of $15 Trillion.
Until we get back to a medium of true economic exchange with real value, not
today’s inflated Pulp Fiction Dollars, we will continue to experience all
the parameters that typify a Depression. If we do not get back to real
value in our money, such as gold and silver backing, we risk civil and
international trade wars, which, if history repeats itself, will escalate
into full fledge military conflicts.

The
Statesman is correct in stating, “In turbulent times, job creation deserves
our best effort.” But that best effort is best solved with a free market,
not the fairytale visions of socialist economics. – FM Duck